Three Years on the Plains: Observations of Indians, 1867-1870

Part 1

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THREE YEARS ON THE PLAINS

Frontispiece.]

THREE YEARS ON THE PLAINS

OBSERVATIONS OF INDIANS, 1867-1870

EDMUND B. TUTTLE

"Like an old pine-tree, I am dead at the top."

--Speech of an old chief

Dedication

TO GEN. W. T. SHERMAN, WHOSE SPLENDID TRIUMPHS IN TIMES OF WAR SHED LUSTRE UPON THE NATION'S HISTORY, AND WHOSE WISE COUNSELS IN TIMES OF PEACE WILL INCREASE THE NATION'S STRENGTH AND PRESERVE ITS HONOR, THIS LITTLE BOOK IS, BY PERMISSION,

Respectfully Dedicated.

LETTER FROM GENERAL SHERMAN

HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, D. C.,

June 13th, 1870.

REV. E. B. TUTTLE, FORT D. A. RUSSELL, W. T.

DEAR SIR,--I have your letter of June 8th, and do not, of course, object to your dedicating your volume on Indians to me. But please don't take your facts from the newspapers, that make me out as favoring extermination.

I go as far as the farthest in favor of lavishing the kindness of our people and the bounty of the general government on those Indians who settle down to reservations and make the least effort to acquire new habits; but to those who will not settle down, who cling to their traditions and habits of hunting, of prowling along our long, thinly-settled frontiers, killing, scalping, mutilating, robbing, etc., the sooner they are made to feel the inevitable result the better for them and for us.

To those I would give what they ask, war, till they are satisfied.

* * * * *

Yours truly,

W. T. SHERMAN, General.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations xi

Introduction 11

Where did the Indians come from? 13

Despoiling the Grave of an old Onondaga Chief 16

The Fidelity of an Indian Chief 22

Big Thunder--a Winnebago Chief 26

Part 2

Indian Tradition--the Deluge 27

Tribes on the Plains 32

The Author a "Medicine-man" 47

The Sioux Sun Dance--Scene on the Plains of Young Warriors exhibiting Fortitude and Bravery in Torturing Pains--a Horrible Scene 48

Julesburg 52

A Brave Boy and some Indians 55

An Indian Meal 56

Shall the Indians be exterminated? 59

Indians don't believe half they hear 65

Army Officers 66

What shall be done? 68

A Good Joke by Little Raven 71

How the Indian is cheated 72

Burial of a Chief's Daughter 72

An Indian Raid on Sidney Station, Union Pacific Railroad 75

Why do Indians scalp their Enemies? 77

Indian Boy's Education 79

Making Presents 81

Indians making Signals 81

Merciful Indians 82

A Scene at North Platte 82

Across the Plains 87

Why does not the Indian meddle with the Telegraph? 89

Plum Creek Massacre 90

Pawnee Indians--Yellow Sun and Blue Hawk 91

A Trip to Fort Laramie 92

Moss Agates 95

A Young Brave 97

Part 3

The Head Chief--Red Cloud 100

Red Cloud's Journey 106

Phil. Kearney Massacre 107

Perilous Adventure--Pursuit of a Horse-Thief 121

Hanging Horse-Thieves 128

An Indian Fight at Sweetwater Mines 131

Indian Attack on the Stage-Coach going to Denver--Rev. Mr. Fuller's Account of Two Attempts upon his Life 135

Chaplain White says there's a time to Pray and a time to Fight 143

Legend of "Crazy Woman's Fork" 145

Phil. Kearney Massacre 149

Mauvaises Terres, or Bad Lands, Dakota 150

Natural History--Animals on the Plains 153

A Night Scene 158

The Mission-House 160

Indian Language, Counting, etc. 160

Indians attack Lieutenant W. Dougherty--Fight between Forts Fetterman and Reno 161

Speech of "White Shield," Head Chief of the Arickarees 162

Indian Trading 164

Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and their Friends in Washington 167

Conclusion 201

Lord's Prayer in Sioux Language 205

Apostles' Creed 206

Distances 206

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Death of Johnson in Colorado frontispiece

FOLLOWING PAGE 102

Issac H. Tuttle Indian Boys Indian Burial Bishop Clarkson Group of Converted Indians Spotted Tail and his Son

MAP

Part 4

Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska xii-xiii

Courtesy Jerome A. Greene.]

INTRODUCTION

The interest which boys are taking in all that relates to our Indian tribes, and the greediness they manifest in devouring the sensational stories published so cheaply, filling their imaginations with stories of wild Indian life on the plains and borders, without regard to their truthfulness, cannot but be harmful; and therefore the writer, after three years' experience on the plains, feels desirous of giving youthful minds a right direction, in a true history of the red men of our forests. Thus can they teach their children, in time to come, what kind of races have peopled this continent; especially before civilization had marked them for destruction, and their hunting-grounds for our possession.

The RIGHTS and WRONGS of the Indians should be told fairly, in order that justice may be done to such as have befriended the white men who have met the Indians in pioneer life, and been befriended often by the savage, since the Mayflower landed her pilgrims on these shores some two hundred and fifty years ago.

The writer proposes now only a history of Indians since he began to know the "Six Nations" in Western New York, about forty years ago. Since then, these have dwindled down to a handful, and do not now exist in their separate tribal relations, but mixed in with others, far away from the beautiful lakes they once inhabited.

WHERE DID THE INDIANS COME FROM?

The origin of the native American Indian has puzzled the wisest heads.

The most plausible theory seems to be that they are one of the lost tribes of Israel; that they crossed a narrow frith from the confines of Asia, and that their traditions, it is said, go far to prove it.

For instance, the Sioux tell us that they were, many moons ago, set upon by a race larger in number than they, and were driven from the north in great fear, till they came to the banks of the North Platte, and finding the river swollen up to its banks, they were stopped there, with all their women, children, and horses. The enemy was pursuing, and their hearts grew white with fear. They made an offering to the Great Spirit, and he blew a wind into the water, so as to open a path on the bed of the river, and they all went over in safety, and the waters, closing up, left their enemies on the other side. This, probably, is derived from a tradition of their forefathers, coming down to them from the passing of the children of Israel through the Red Sea.

Elias Boudinot, many years ago, and a minister in Vermont also, published books to show that the American Indians were a portion of the lost tribes, from resemblances between their religious customs and those of the Israelites. Later still, a converted Jew named Simon, undertook to identify the ancient South American races, Mexicans, Peruvians, etc., as descendants of ancient Israel, from similarity of language and of civil and religious customs. These authors have taken as their starting-point the resolution which, Esdras informs us (in the Apocrypha), the ten tribes took after being first placed in the cities of the Medes, viz., that they would leave the multitude of the heathen and go into a land wherein never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their laws, which God gave them; and they suppose that, in pursuance of this resolution, the tribes continued in a northeasterly direction until they came to Behring Straits, which they crossed, and set foot on this continent, spreading over it from north to south, until, at the discovery of it by Columbus, they had peopled every part. It must be admitted that this theory is very plausible, and that if our Indians are not the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, they show by their traditions and customs a knowledge of the ancient religion, such as calling the Great Spirit Yo-he-wah, the Jehovah of the Scriptures, and in many festivals corresponding to the Mosaic law. The country to which the ten tribes, in a journey of a year and a half, would arrive, from the river Euphrates, east, would be somewhere adjoining Tartary, and intercourse between the two races would easily lead to the adoption of the religious ideas and customs of the one by the other.

Labagh.

The gypsy tribes came from Tartary, and in my intercourse with these wandering people, I found they had a custom somewhat like our Indians' practice, in removing from place to place. For instance, the gypsies, when they leave a part of their company to follow them, fix leaves in such wise as to direct their friends to follow in their course. This is called "patteran" in Romany or gypsy language. And the Indian cuts a notch in a tree as he passes through a forest, or places stones in the plains in such a way as to show in what direction he has gone. An officer saw a large stone, upon which an Indian had drawn the figure of a soldier on horseback, to indicate to others which way the soldiers had gone.

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